Saccoglossum verrucosum L.O.Williams, Amer. Orchid Soc. Bull. 11 (1943) 297, pl. 8, 1-6
Type: Brass 11325 (holo AMES)
Creeping epiphyte, to about 22 cm long. Rhizome slender, about 2-4 mm diam., covered with scarious sheaths which disintegrate with age. Pseudobulbs about 3 cm apart, 1.2-1.5 cm long and 0.4-0.5 cm diam., cylindrical. Leaves 6-7 cm long and 2.5-3.5 cm broad, ovate-lanceolate, acute, sessile, coriaceous, reversed, with the underside exposed to the sun, underside densely verrucose. Inflorescences lateral, fascicled, 1-flowered. Median sepal 9 mm by 2.7 mm, lanceolate, acute, 3-nerved. Lateral sepals 9 mm by 5.5 mm, obliquely oblong-elliptic, subacute, with 3 main nerves. Petals 8 by 3 mm, oblanceolate, obtuse, 1-nerved, somewhat fleshy at the base. Lip 7 mm long, 6 mm high, saccate, deeply emarginate, reticulately nerved. Column 4 mm long, somewhat curved, thickened to the base and with a short, thickened column-foot, apex with two cirrhose stelidia on each side, the clinandrium bipartite and with each half bilobulate and serrulate. (After Williams, 1943)
Colours: Leaves purple-black below. Lateral sepals yellow, lip reddish, median sepal and petals purple brown.
Habitat: Epiphyte in lower montane forest; 1800 m.
Flowering time in the wild: July.
Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea).
Distribution in New Guinea: Papua New Guinea; see map 619-4M.jpg.
Cultivation: Intermediate growing epiphyte.